Tag Archives: Babri-Masjid

RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat (30th Sept 2010) had welcomed the judgment and stated that this judgment paves the way for grand Ram Temple as court has already allotted 2/3 of land. Now (Dec 12, 2010) he goes further to say that division of land is unwarranted and all land should be given to Hindus as division always creates problems as in the case of Kashmir, and that all the land should be handed over to Hidus. The statement of Mr. Bhagwat is quiet in tune with the politics, ideology and agenda of RSS. Continue reading →

In the Ayodhya matter, has the judgement of the Allahabad High Court unwittingly taken the law to the ideological right, and conferred legitimacy on questionable doctrine of majoritarian supremacy, while at the same time succeeding, I cannot say inadvertently or otherwise, in concealing it ? Magicians have certain stock tricks and are adept at creating illusions so that audiences reach the conclusions magicians want. The judgement by picking stands and claims so devoid of any verifiable content and so completely divorced from the normal realm of evidence, proof, documentation, verification, legal sustainability, precedent, etc., and alleged facts so impossible to prove, walked such a perilous path that it appeared to it perfectly logical to resort to reliance on blind faith… and in doing so it created so compelling an illusion that it successfully blinded itself to not only binding precedent but also threw overboard all canons of judicial propriety in decision making, to such an extent that from that warped viewpoint, only one outcome seemed possible. Continue reading →

While peace and reconciliation is very important if it is achieved at the cost of Constitutional democracy and rule of law, it can do more harm than achieve such objective, if it succeeds. The judgment is based on faith, not on law. The two judges, without any historical proof and law of the land straightway invoked faith of Hindus that Ram was born at that place and that a 12th century temple existed there (while admitting that they do not know anything about history and archaeology) and given land to Ram Lalla on one hand, and Nirmohi Akhara on the other and as if as a concession to Sunni Muslim Wakf Board also. Thus all three judges have invoked values of peace and reconciliation rather than constitutional values of democratic India. Law is and must be indifferent to the faith of litigants and even of judges and the judgment, in a democratic country like India which has maintained its independence of judiciary and constitutional values for last sixty years, must be based only on law without any compromise. Continue reading →

From the night of December 1949, when idols were first placed in the mosque in an act of vandalism to the day of December 1992, when the Babri Masjid was demolished and even after that Muslims of India have always been on the side of law. Imam of Babri Masjid, when he was informed of the placement of idols, did not take the law in his hand rather he went to the local police. Since then, Muslims have pleaded their case patiently in the court of law and hoped for the best. It was their firm belief in Indian Constitution and judiciary that had them waiting for the justice for 60 years. Indian Muslims have little confidence in police, administration, media or people claiming to be their leaders but their full trust in judiciary, even with its slow movement, was what kept them going. The best option is to have the case in the Supreme Court be petitioned by a non-Muslim group or people not representing Muslims. Muslims do not need to be party to this case to get justice. Babri Masjid had become a symbol of Indian secularism and rule of law, which means any Indian can be party to this case. Continue reading →

The flaws in the UP High Court judgement on the title to the Babri mosque land are so basic and so numerous and have been so succinctly pointed out by a lot of people, about half of them Hindus. Unfortunately many Muslims who speak on this issue have hardly any communication with Hindus as their lives have always revolved in Muslim circles only. Instead of looking at today’s real India they think of an idealistic divine India where every Hindus should be a Gandhi. Look at the long history of India where a minority of upper caste Hindus have dominated over an overwhelming majority of low caste Hindus for many milleniums, despite countless Hindu saints, reformers and do-gooders. Today it behoves Indian Muslims to think of their future with cool heads, evaluate their real options, not their idealistic dreams, and advise their leadership to take the right step forward that can bring the community out of the doghouse and into the mainstream and pinnacle of the nation. Continue reading →

There appears to be general consensus within the Indian Muslim community, from the Irani hotels of Hyderabad to the comfortable drawing rooms of Noida, that there is no such thing as a national level Muslim leadership in the country. Those who lay claims to leadership are often personalities with local influence, intellectuals with no mass based support, and religious scholars who represent certain sects and ideologies. In addition, there are pseudo-leaders who have neither the influence among the masses nor the intellectual acumen but have the right connections in the political parties. But for starters the national organizations can begin by revamping their respective structures. The first thing should be to weed out the dalals from national organizations like the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. Secondly, these organizations should reflect the true demographic diversity of the community. Inclusion of youth and women is vital if these organizations are to successfully face future challenges. Continue reading →